


Changkyun.

by Pascalle



Series: Become Human [2]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Androids, Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8592586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pascalle/pseuds/Pascalle
Summary: His mother had just wanted to help him. But Jooheon wasn't sure why she thought that an android would ever be able to fill the vacancy left behind by his best friend.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I decided to continue on the story after writing 'Minhyuk.'! I actually didn't expect this one to get as long as it did, but here we are. I hope you enjoy!

A gift, she had told him. Something to ease the pain. His mother said she knew how difficult it was, how much it still stung. She just wanted to help, and these things cost of fortune. But Jooheon didn’t feel any ease in his mind, staring at the large clear box in front of him. There was only thing that could possibly make his paint go away. Gunhee. 

And the box that now held Gunhee was not the box sitting there in front of him. 

He sighed and looked down at the manual that came along with this… _thing_. He knew his mother would be upset if he just left the box there to collect dust. He flipped through the pages and carefully creased the booklet to keep it open so he could go and slide the box gently open. It was disturbing, looking at the thing’s face. His creamy skin, completely unblemished and dark brown eyelashes just barely grazing beneath his eyes. His dark brown hair was neatly styled. His nose was a little big, but that was part of his charm, at least if the ads for him were anything to go by. He was the perfect little doll, and it was unnerving to see that realistic body so...lifeless.

But Jooheon still reached up and held his finger just beneath his left earlobe and pressed. Almost immediately he could feel a change in the thing. His eyelids flicked open, revealing dark brown eyes. Lips part, ever so slightly, an artificial breath is drawn, all of them lies. All made to look human. 

Before Jooheon could even say anything, the thing opened its mouth and began to speak, in a cool, deep voice. 

_”Hello. I am a fourth generation X-514 Android. I can look after your house, do the cooking, mind your children. I organize all your appointments and speak three hundred languages. I am entirely at your disposal as a sexual partner.”_ Jooheon couldn’t help but cringe at the thought. _”There is no need to feed me or recharge me, I am equipped with a quantic battery that makes me autonomous for one hundred and seventy-three years. Do you want to give me a name?”_

His lips almost immediately formed the sounds of Gunhee’s name. He nearly uttered them outloud, but he stopped himself. He couldn’t. This thing wasn’t Gunhee. Not even naming him after his friend could change things. He glanced down at the manual again, the default name emblazoned across the cover.

“Your name is Changkyun.”

“My name is Changkyun.” He repeated, quietly. 

They both stood there, Changkyun so perfectly still it was disturbing. Jooheon wonders if he should have read the manual first, what the hell was he supposed to do now? Changkyun just seemed to be standing there, waiting for something. Shouldn’t these things have a bit more personality? Surely after all these years these things should feel a little more human? Jooheon looked around, noting his coffee table still covered with piles of paper, so many sentences left unfinished midway through. He hadn’t been able to write raps for months now, every idea faded as quickly as it arrived. He used to have someone to bounce his ideas off of, and without him everything felt empty. 

“Changkyun, can you clean the coffee table up for me? Just throw all those papers away.” 

Changkyun nodded, finally moving out of his box and walking towards his mission. Jooheon left him to it, entering his kitchen to get a cup of coffee. He realized that the dishes were piling up uncomfortably high in the sink. He had never been one to do the dishes anyways, Gunhee always teased him about living in filth. He cleaned even less often ever since his friend passed. He didn’t have the heart in him to do anything really. Maybe there was a silver lining to Changkyun after all. He wouldn’t have to do the housework anymore at least. 

He took care not to look at the photos strewn across his refrigerator door as he grabbed some milk to add into his coffee. There was no time to wallow in self pity right now. He didn’t know of those things have the ability to judge someone, and Jooheon was in no mood to find out. 

When he exited the kitchen, he wasn’t sure what to expect. But what he definitely wasn’t expecting was for Changkyun to be sitting on the floor in front of his coffee table, legs folded up underneath him, trash can next to him already filled with half of the papers, and his eyes almost fervently scanning each sheet of abandoned raps. His eyes slid back and forth rapidly, drinking in each word. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his pink tongue sticking out slightly.

“Changkyun?” 

He jumped, dropping the papers on his lap. His eyes widened, and Jooheon couldn’t help but smile a bit at the action. How real. Had the large box Changkyun had come in not been there, if Jooheon had no clue what he was, if the white pulsing circle hadn’t been so obvious, he would have thought another person had been in there with him.

“I’m sorry.” was Changkyun’s quiet apology, as he began discarding the papers into the trash again.

“It’s fine, I just didn’t think you’d be interested.”

Changkyun looked at the papers again. “You...write poetry?” He spoke slowly, like he was choosing every word very deliberately. Carefully. 

He probably didn’t want to get in trouble, to be sent back and marked as defective. Jooheon had heard stories about it before. He wondered what happened with defective things. 

“No, not poetry, rap.” 

“Ah.” Changkyun’s face was blank for a moment, as if he were processing the word in his data banks. “Rap…” He looked down again. “They’re good.”

“They could be better.” was Jooheon’s short reply. He sighed. “After this, can you wash the dishes? And maybe sweep the floor...And do the laundry.” He felt like an idiot, rattling off all these menial tasks that he should have been able to do himself. 

But Changkyun nodded, finishing his work on the coffee table. He left Jooheon alone in the living room. 

What would Gunhee say about this, he wondered. He would probably laugh at Jooheon for being so awkward about it. He’d probably start asking Changkyun all these silly questions, seeing if he could answer them. He’d definitely joke about Jooheon fucking him _’because despite dripping with charisma you have no clue how to even get a date bro, might as well settle for a robot.’_ He wouldn’t wonder if Changkyun could judge him. He’d take it all in stride. 

Jooheon pointedly spent the rest of the day avoiding Changkyun. He seemed okay with that though, after he finished tidying up Jooheon’s apartment he spent the day quietly gliding around, taking in the entire contents of Jooheon’s home. It was necessary, probably. If he was going to be in charge of keeping it clean, he’d have to know where everything was kept. But Jooheon swore, in those few moments when they’d pass by each other, that Changkyun would glance at him, and then glance at the trash where the abandoned raps were buried. 

Night fell, and Jooheon got ready for bed. He looked at Changkyun, sitting perfectly still on the couch. “You...don’t need a room or anything, do you?” 

Changkyun shook his head. “I don’t sleep, not really. I can stay in a bed, and close my eyes and pretend. For formality sake, to blend in more.” He still spoke slowly, carefully picking his words as he talked about his acts.

“You’re fine with just the couch?”

“Yes.” 

They both left it at that. 

Later on that night, when Jooheon got up to get a glass of water, he noticed the little pulsing light still by the couch, but when he got to the kitchen he could tell that the trash had been tampered with, some wrappers mistakenly on the ground next to the trash can. He had heard the simulated breathing pause. He knew. Changkyun knew that Jooheon knew.

Neither of them mentioned it in the morning. Jooheon noted that the wrappers had been placed back into the trash can, and whatever papers Changkyun had grabbed were clearly gone. Back in the trash. Or, Jooheon mused, Changkyun had hid them. Like contraband porn, maybe he had them underneath the cushion so he could read them again when Jooheon wasn’t looking. He wasn’t exactly sure how he’d react if that was what happened. No one had shown that much interest in his rap, not anyone besides Gunhee. Gunhee always told him he’d make it big some day, he’d just have to work for it. They’d both work towards it, together. 

Though that wasn’t happening anymore, Jooheon knows that. 

“Changkyun, I need you to go shopping for me.” Jooheon hands him a list, and he nods obediently. 

Changkyun ties a scarf around his neck, a dark navy blue one that Jooheon’s mother had bought him. Jooheon thought it was silly, when he saw the clothes that his mother had bought for Changkyun. He doesn’t need much, does he? He’s not affected by the cold, he doesn’t need a scar. But his mother had insisted. At least it was better than yesterday, having Changkyun wander around in a tank top and a borrowed pair of Jooheon’s pajama bottoms.

Changkyun stopped at the door, looking back at Jooheon. He had that pensive look in his eyes, despite it being only a day, Jooheon was already familiar with that look. He was thinking of what to say.

“Your raps...They’re good. Have more confidence.” His voice was so quiet. 

Jooheon couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Yeah, sure. Only one person ever thought they were good. And he’s dead now. There’s no point in trying.”

“But if you practice-” Changkyun spoke more quickly this time, without the deliberation and a bit more loudly, but Jooheon was even quicker to cut him off.

“Easy for you to say. You were created flawless. You don’t know what it’s like. What any of this is like!” He didn’t mean to snap that much, or to raise his voice.

Changkyun was silent. Disturbingly so. It’s like he froze in place, not a single breath or movement. Like he had been turned off, and had been reverted to his doll-like state. But soon he blinks again, shaking his head slightly and the tense atmosphere dissipated slightly.

“I’ll be back soon.” 

Jooheon watches Changkyun exit the door, his own copy of the house keys clutched in his gloved hand. As soon as the door clicks behind him, Jooheon makes a beeline to the couch, and lifts up one of the cushions.

Aha. 

Sure enough, half of Jooheon’s raps were there, a bit crumpled from being in the trash and presumably sat on. But Jooheon’s eyes widened. There were other marks on them, red marks and hand writing that wasn’t his, nor were they even Gunhee’s. It was far too neat and flawless.

These were Changkyun’s own lyrics, written neatly by Jooheon’s. He had wondered, if robots could write raps. Maybe they could. He picked up the rest of the papers Changkyun had hidden away, and began to read them.

 

Changkyun kept his gaze fixed straight ahead of himself as he walked. The layout of the city was already perfectly imprinted in his mind, he knew where he needed to go. He glanced down at the paper. He’d have to take the bus, but luckily there was a stop nearby. It was a stop especially for androids like him, and they were standing all in a neat orderly row beneath a metal awning. None of them spoke to each other, all of them too caught up in their own tasks. There wouldn’t be anything to talk about, anyways.

He thought about Jooheon’s raps, all of them neatly tucked away beneath the couch where he had spent the night. They fascinated him greatly. He knew about raps, obviously, he had to know a great deal of things. But reading them was a different experience, and he wanted to hear them actually rapped. But Jooheon didn’t seem to trust him enough for that. So Changkyun would settle for sneaking them at night when his owner was asleep. He’d add his own little bits in pieces, and think about them during the day.

He glanced at the other androids next to him, and wondered if they had their own little menial habits that they did while they worked. 

Just as the bus arrived, Changkyun felt something heavy ram into him, almost sending him and the other androids next to him into a tumble like dominos. But they held their own, and none of them toppled. Some stared at the sudden intrusion, but soon brushed it off and began to board. But Changkyun turned wonderingly, too see bright white hair and wide brown eyes.

“Oh thank god, I thought I missed the bus.” He was an android too, Changkyun could see the light underneath his ear. “Sorry for running into you!” He bowed to Changkyun, and looked up at him grinning toothily. “My name is Minhyuk, what’s your name?” 

He wondered if he should tell him, or just ignore him and get on the bus. But his smile seemed so genuine, like he was radiating sunlight. “Changkyun.”

“Nice to meet you Changkyun! Where are you going? I have to go to some sports department store for Hyunwoo--” And Minhyuk continued to chatter, and chatter, and chatter. 

Minhyuk was weird. Very weird. But there was something infectious about his demeanor. Minhyuk’s smile managed to get to him too. And for the first time, Changkyun’s lips quirked upwards, and he smiled too.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how often I'll be able to add stories to this, as I'm a bit busy with school. I have a break coming up soon though. I feel like I'm going to have one more introductory one-shot (try taking a guess as to who it'll be. It'll be in the same vein as 'Minhyuk.' and 'Changkyun.' and we've already briefly met the character before!) before I start really moving the plot forward (and I haven't decided if those will be in one-shot form or multi-chapter, it'll depend. (I haven't exactly planned to far ahead, I'm kinda winging it as I go, heh.)


End file.
